Bird argues that the playwrights, their productions, and their texts express the contradictory relations within these forms of feminism: on the one hand they represent women's social and political emancipation and, on the other, they affirm patriarchal structures and the status quo. Implicitly, this study calls into question what traditionally constitutes drama by treating plays written in non-canonical forms, mounted in nonprofessional venues, and published by marginal presses or not at all as important literary, theatrical, and historical documents.